Vaea Ferrand, 22, was crowned Miss Tahiti 2016 on June 24 in Papeete. She will represent her island at the 2017 Miss France Pageant this december in Montpellier. Vaea stands tall at 175cm and studied chemistry in France.
The Miss Tahiti pageant is a long-standing beauty contest competition which awards prizes to young women contestants from Tahiti to Miss France as territory. It allows to compete at some International pageants to represent the island as a territory. The contest has been known since 1960 before joining Miss France contest in 1986. Internationally, the winners of Miss Tahiti traditionally competed in Miss World until 2002. The first Miss Tahiti, Teura Bauwens, was sent to Miss World 1960. In 2009, a separate Miss French Polynesia contest was established for Miss World.